At 09:12 AM 8/20/2002 -0500, miker wrote:
>Ray on Abebooks:
>...I found this entry on ABE:
>Erle Stanley Gardner... Price: US$ 910.00 convert
currency
>
>**********
>Thats just scary, Ray. My trick with Abebooks is to
sort by
>price and don't travel very far down the list. I also
keep
>in mind that I'm a reader and not a collector. That
means
>I'm more inclined to buy a clean, fine Black Lizard
reprint
>than I am a beat-up original with yellow pages
falling out.
Well, I did sort by price, but this time I used highest
first. I figured that a first edition of the first Gardner
book would be among the most expensive. The operative item
here, though, was that the dealer claims this is the first
edition of the first novel, and it's dated 1933. Hence, I
surmise no published novels for Gardner pre-1930.
BTW, the most expensive listing was:
1. GARDNER, Erle Stanley. Case Of The Counterfeit
Eye. New York: William Morrow and Company, 1935. 304 pp. 8vo.
Publisher's printed wrappers, using the design of the dust
jacket. Advance copy, with publication date stamped on front
free endpaper. Very slight wear to bottom of spine, else nice
and bright. Extremely unusual in this prepublication format.
Bookseller Inventory # 8583 Price: US$ 2500.00 convert
currency Presented by Jeffrey H. Marks, Rare Books, ABAA,
Rochester, NY, U.S.A.
followed by three more entries at $1350:
2. Gardner, Erle Stanley The Case Of The Velvet
Claws NY Morrow 1933.
http://www.phantomdragon.com/zshop/050802/CaseofTheVelvetClaws1st.jpg
Very good copy, with some moderate wear to the binding.
Hinges starting to crack. Page 275 has a small 1 inch tape
repair with paper cello tape. Some light staining to some of
the interior pages. Imprinting on the cover and spine very
good. This copy is from the library of Vivian K. Bostwick, a
friend of Erle Stanley Gardner's at the time he wrote this
book in Ventura, CA. Sans dust jacket. First edition of the
first Perry Mason book. Quite scarce. 1st Edition. Bookseller
Inventory # 009290 Price: US$ 1350.00 convert currency
Presented by Katie Books/Phantom Bookshop, Ventura, CA,
U.S.A.
3. GARDNER, ERLE STANLEY. The Case of
the Stuttering Bishop New York: Morrow, 1936 First Edition.
Previous owner's ink comments on front free endpaper, else a
fine copy in a dust jacket with very light wear and a small
tape reinforcement inside the spine. Bookseller Inventory #
16410 Price: US$ 1350.00 convert currency Presented by Peter
L. Stern & Co., Inc., A.B.A.A., Boston, MA, U.S.A.
4. Gardner, Erle Stanley The Case of
the Stuttering Bishop NY: Morrow, 1936. Hardback with
Dustjacket. 1st Edition. Closed tears, edgewear, chipping to
o/w bright dj. NF/VG+ . Bookseller Inventory # 971 Price: US$
1350.00 convert currency Presented by Evergreen Books llc/Joe
Jurschak, Evergreen, CO, U.S.A.
(SEARCH THIS SELLERS INVENTORY) order options
And a few more at $1250.
I assume that there must be an entire universe of Erle
Stanley Gardner collectors out there somewhere, but my usual
experience is that when I look at a Gardner book in some used
book store, the proprietor tries his best to get me to take
that one and all of the rest he has down in the
basement.
Ray
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